Which New Orleans will be celebrating in neighborhood bars & on the streets I just 11 days, conveniently on a Saturday so fewer people are forced to take off from work to attend (or take the next day off to recover from). Slainte!

I grew up on the gulf coast not too far from Lake Charles, LA. Many of my friends went to NOLA for Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s Day. I always loved getting some of the Mardi Gras beads they collected. I never went, I just lived vicariously through them.

…The big winner of the night, however, was the “Five Star” movement. This most obviously Trumpian outfit, which expresses the voters’ anger at the establishment, won 33 percent. Its slogan, “Vaffanculo!” none too subtly invites establishmentarians to attempt monogenesis. It took votes primarily from the Left. Moreover, Sunday’s vote changed Italian politics generationally from below. Nothing like this had happened in a century.

It brings back happy memories. My boss was a beautifully dressed and well-educated man who had an engineering degree from the University of Bologna. He was equally at home quoting Dante at length – or cursing volubly with the typical Italian hand signals (no, it isn’t just a cliche), shouting one or more of the following in a deep bass – “porca miseria!”, “ma vaffanculo!” (or va fan culo), “mannaggia!”, “che cazzo!”, “stronzo!”, “merda!”, “Figlio di puttana!”

Here he is, after a race, probably at the harness track near Naples. He was manager there in later life.

And an article about him in the New York Times:

Many years after he left our company and returned to Italy, we made a book for him on his birthday with photos of the employees who worked there during his tenure, with notes of greeting from everybody. On the cover was a caricature of him in a Roman toga, with his foot on a block that had the company logo on it (a stylized “M” in a circle) and the title, “And A Nose That is Handsome”.

Yes, but whenever I hear the words ‘Italian’ and ‘government’ together all I can think about is how Italy’s had some 65 since the end of WW II. Even in the early 60s when I lived in Germany the joke was something to theveffect of: “Well, it’s Wednesday, who’s the Italian prime minister today?”.

Though actually a sad song, “You Are My Sunshine” is upbeat in tune. It’s one of those songs a child of my era learned in school. Jimmie Davis – “You Are My Sunshine” (1940)
(It Is Claimed That Oliver Hood Wrote the Song in the Early 1930’s and Performed it at a Veteran’s of Foreign Wars Convention in Georgia.
1st. Recorded 22 August 1939 by the Pine Ridge Boys on Bluebird 8263 A (no composer credit)
2nd. Recorded 13 September 1939 by the Rice Brothers Gang on Decca 5763 A (Paul Rice Credited) Paul Rice Claimed to Compose it in 1937
Jimmie Davis Bought the Song & Rights from Paul Rice
This Song is One of the Two Official Songs of the State of Louisiana)

I used to sing it to my children when they were little – and now they sing it with their children. Although it is a sad song, my daughter says the only thing she remembers is feeling like she was my sunshine…. That’s good enough for me!

Ryan should be nervous I saw him change I saw him make the conscious effort not to do the right thing when he became Romney’s wing man. It was painful to watch him on his first return to Wisconsin after his grooming.

Exploring my grandparents’ house when I was a kid, I found an alligator purse in the basement. It had a full baby alligator head on it. Seemed really creepy to me. I understand using the skin, but the whole head, eyes and all? I never understood. Why would someone make that?

Monday on the Iditarod trail. Gorgeous weather and warm on the way up to Rainy Pass. Aliy had me anxious for a while, she stopped for 8 hours of rest in the middle of the day, probably to avoid running in the heat. Temps are in the +20s, which is warm for sled dogs. They perform best at -10 to +10. Letting them get overheated is the worst thing for them. I watched as team after team passed her up, and was afraid something was wrong. But early rest in this marathon is gas in the tank for later. She blazed over Rainy Pass, down the Dalzel Gorge, and into Rohn, which is the end of the Alaska Range. She is in 7th position now, a good place to be for the middle portion of the race. Word on the trail is that the weather gets bad about 20 miles out of Rohn. Snowstorms for the next few days with lots of soft white stuff being dropped. That will slow all the teams down as the dogs are churning through chest deep fresh snow.

Word’s out, Mississippi Senator Cochran is retiring from the Senate on 1 April due to health problems. Chris McDaniel’s dusting off his track shoes, interesting how he will deal with his ‘Trump voters are delusional’ remarks when he runs.

We’re gonna wait and see what the state Republican Party does. Gotta remember, we’re a small state, only some 3-million, and there’s gpnna be a lot of outside $$$$ coming in to try and swing the elections (both Senators’ seats will be in play) one way or tuther.
So far the state Rat party’s been very quiet and that’s unnerving too. Most of the Rat progs are hiding under rocks in the Jackson area but aren’t above going out into the hinterlands and promising two taxpayer-funded chickens in everyones’ pots if they vote for corrosion.

Cochran’s election was the final nail in the coffin of my Republican Party loyalty. It had been on life support for a number of years. That election killed it.

I might vote for a candidate who is running as a Republican, like I did President Trump, but they no longer have any assurance of my vote at all. The only absolute left for me is that I will never vote for a Democrat.

I saw many a post in 2016 about voting for the Democrat when a RINO is also on the ticket. Those type of comments always made me think the poster was actually a Dem trying to act like a Conservative.

But, then, of course, RINOS like George Herbert Walker Bush and Babs voted for Hillary rather than our great President. It’s just inconceivable to me how any Republican with an ounce of sense could do that. NEVER vote Democrat is my motto!

I might vote for a candidate who is running as a Republican, like I did President Trump, but they no longer have any assurance of my vote at all. The only absolute left for me is that I will never vote for a Democrat.

Yep. Right now we have (U)niparty and (O)ther. I prefer the other, every time.

The Uniparty has shown us what they have to offer, in spades, since GHWB.

Good Morning and thank you Nyet – the Baron of Breakfast! Good Morning Good Stellars!

“Roses and violets from summer gardens, sun-drenched Sicilian lemons squeezed of their juice and mingled with juniper from the frozen north. Saffron threads and gold leaf from the Indies waited to be turned into something magical. And contained deep within all of this was a smile that flooded him with warmth, a pair of blue eyes, and the scent of chocolate…” ~ Laura Madeleine, The Confectioner’s Tale

I’m good, thank you, Sand. Tripod is back to being an outside cat. I kicked him out last week. Back to where he belongs, in his environment. He belongs in my apartment like Somalia belongs in Minnesota. In other words, he doesn’t. I still feed and water him, but he doesn’t belong inside. And now I have a modicum of peace.

I’m out the door soon into the wonderful winter land, I think our city snow plow drover was filling up his hours, the street snow has been cleared but he’s been by a few times anyhow his plow scraping the road and causing sparks. Probably being paid $80.00 an hour. I waved to him and he smiled.

There was this hilarious internet story going around about 15 years ago called A Tennesean Moves to Minnesota. Everything was happy happy at first and he loved the snow. By the time February rolls around there was a line that said “wounded the snow plow driver.” I still remember that and laugh.

My mother in law plowed snow at night every winter for years in Indiana. I don’t know how she did it! Not too many women who do that work, but I think it’s awesome she did. Glad to hear you have a very dedicated snow plower!!!! 😉

It’s $275 here. Ask me how I know. It’s a scam, and they say that if your grass is more than 3″ long, you are non-compliant. They did that to me late in October a few years ago while I was at work. They only did the backyard, using a gang mower, and it took them all of 10 minutes, according to my neighbor, who is the guy who cuts my grass when he cuts theirs. Did they fine my neighbors, whose grass adjoins mine in the front and is the same length? No.

Did I pay them? No. I wrote a letter and said I would not pay them, and why. The first year they added the fee to my taxes, and I didn’t pay it then either. They finally removed it from my tax bill and I never heard another word about it.

They really can’t legally do what they are doing. If they issued a ticket and I was given an opportunity for my day in court, that would be different, but that isn’t what they did. They levied a fine with no recourse on my part, which isn’t legal, and they know this. Isn’t that what due process is all about? As far as I am concerned, the people who pay their fines are being robbed.

PS Want to hear about the city of Chicago’s red light scam? If I didn’t drive down there so often I wouldn’t have paid my ticket but a Waukesha policeman advised that it would be a prudent thing to pay it.

True. But I’d have to drive to Chicago to fight it and likely get another ticket once I was there. As you know traffic there is a mess. There are unprotected left turns at 5 way intersections which means that one car can make a left and it is almost always after the light turns red as traffic is simply too heavy to turn during the green or yellow. Your larger point is true though, I could have fought it, and won, “When was the camera last calibrated your honor?”

Your honor “Bailiff is there a representative from CPD who can tell me when the camera was calibrated?

People look around, “No your honor.”

Judge “Case dismissed.”

I get to my car and start it, CPD taps on my window, “Mam’ can I se your license, insurance and registration,”

Me “Yes Sir, what is the problem?”

Officer “Mam, there is a seatbelt law in IL and you’re not buckled up.

I always wear my seatbelt while driving, I don’t necessarily put it on before I start my car. I might be letting the car warm up a bit, or putting on the air with the windows down just to let out some heat, setting my playlist, texting some one to tell them that I can’t text anymore because I’l be driving, so all this is stuff I might do while I’m sitting in a parking spot before I start to drive.

My sister -in-law in CA got a ticket for starting her car without her seatbelt on.

I trust Chicago politicians and judges as much as I trust Sheriff Israel.

After I ranted at work (as I do sometimes) about the Gluten Free Zombies not knowing what contains gluten a few days ago, probably 20 minutes passed and a server came into the kitchen, because she HAD to, per customer request, to ask us if our bacon had any gluten in it.

Our line cook, a wonderful, almost-illiterate black man that I love, stomped his feet and said “Bacon comes from PIGS!! Ain’t no wheat! Ain’t no flour! It comes from pigs!!” He had us in stitches, and even he almost fell down laughing. And I was right. Most people are idiots.

You’d love him, like we all do. Ain’t nobody can dance like him, laugh like him, or talk like him. He’s got quite a story, like we all do. He’s a wonderful Christian, but his past certainly wasn’t. He’s very animated when you can pry those stories out of him. With liquor. And my brother has some crazy stories. And he is my brother, I say.

So true for me, too Menagerie. I think I’ve read that before, if memory serves, but I just saw it in a thread on American Thinker this morning about prayer.

That place has been a daily read for me probably since it’s inception, and its comment section. An aptly-named site. I don’t jump in, ever. Like I wouldn’t interrupt Lewis, Tolken, and the Inklings. Just sit back and listen.

Wooly, don’t forget about your gift for photography, I hope you are still planning on getting a camera. This is taken with my Nikon, no special lens, just the one it came with. No special lighting, just zoom, focus snap and shoot.

I understand Wooly, whatever makes your soul happy, brings you peace, challenges you to make the next step better that is where you should put your energies. I get that it is different for everyone 🙂 !

What an awsome close-up!
How fast can your camera startup & take a picture? I missed the picure of a lifetime – a bald eagle flying past my window carrying a large, shining fish in it’s talons – because my camera was taking so long to turn on.
Can it take decent night photos of the moon, & does it need another lens to do so – many do for moon pics.
What model Number is your camera?
Thanks so much. I have a folder on camera advice, & I am narrowing questions to specific iinfo before spending the $$$$. Thanks again.

“This is my experience of the left and right as well. On the left: self-serious, self-righteous, angry-faced harridans who want to destroy you for disagreeing with them. They call you names, they shout you down, they riot if you try to speak, they try to get you fired or run you out of business. On the right, we laugh a lot and argue constantly.

Brooks says progressives are winning because they have managed to silence dissenting opinion. In his speech at CPAC, Shapiro declared the right is winning precisely because: “The era of political correctness is over.”

Suppression of opinion, or free discussion? Which way forward do you think Americans will ultimately choose?”

Will Smith is a cop in a NYC with an Orc partner, in a city with a plethora of Orcs, Elves, and Fairies, and it’s all normal. Really neat story, with takes on racism that Hollywood never thought of, nor could they, with their IQ.

Whoever greenlighted this script, I want to give them a high-five. IT’S SO FUN. Weird is good, sometimes.

When the guy who hosted the breast-obsessed ‘Man Show’ appears onstage with an NBA player once accused of rape to give awards to people who spent decades doing business with Harvey Weinstein — you know Hollywood has gotten serious about sexual harassment.

I have no comment about the crop of overrated movies honored by the Academy Sunday night — other than to note that giving the Best Picture nod to ‘Handicapped Woman Has Sex With Fish Man, Is Saved By Communists’ may be the most #Oscars! moment ever. What is worthy of notice is the nonstop self-congratulations from society’s most notoriously corrupt class, the Hollywood Left.

Just Googled ‘conservative news’ and first up comes a stream of feeds on how Facebook blocking conservative news. Don’t look at him, don’t look at me, look at that progressive social media engineer behind the tree.

‘Twas terrible windy here, too – shades of Slowdeatha……. still soppy wet, gawd we can’t even weed or mow, yet. Carolina jasmine, tulips, azaleas out and getting crazy and the grass done woke up. Pecans are budding (which is the “OK for spring planting” here) and the Red river is swollen…..

Afternoon Wee… have a huge respect for satirical cartoons, I agree with you that Branco is a master of his craft and I find it fascinating that no one has “liked’ this powerful piece. Thanks for sharing it.

Morning all…Yesterday, I made my first venture into ‘the bank’ since my purchase and I thought I’d share.

In the 1900’s these safety deposit boxes not only held the items of private individuals, but the labeling indicates that this particular unit is where the bank held the collateral titles, assay documents and other important documents before the state & its governing body existed. This particular ‘au currant’, ‘must have’, banking equipment, is a “mobile” unit… which is hilarious, because the estimated weight on this baby is about 500 lbs.

However, in complete opposition to the bulk and weight of the storage unit, if one looks closely at the keys that remain intact, each one is about 1/4 of the thickness of a dime…wafer thin… and each is beautifully cut with design work….Amazing craftsmanship.

Repurposed….It should make a glorious cabinet for storing studio supplies…

Me and Chef moved a post-office mail-sorter out of his basement that weighed as much, and it was just as cool. We hauled it to his daughter out in the sticks, who uses it for sorting glass-blowing supplies for her side business. If I could still use Pbucket, I would show you a picture. We found a date and a manufacturer in Ohio on the bottom of it. Late 1930s.

(While hauling the thing out of the basement, I kept bumping my head on the staircase above me. Chef told me, “Turn your baseball cap backwards.” I did. I didn’t bump my head any more. I don’t wear baseball caps while working any more.)

We had a penchant for old yellow oak office furniture. There was a whole yellow oak set of filing cabinets and a set of small card catalog drawers that dated back to the 30s, our military unit got it years ago and we found it in the attic. Property Disposal didn’t want it, they said to take it to the dump so I was going to dump it at my house. Went up about two weeks later to bring it down and – you guessed it – some eager beaver had beat me to it and took it to the dump. so much for planning…

No, operant condition was clearing the attic. There used to be a private metal scrap yard that bought ‘used’ tools from the Air Force Base nearby. As it was a depot there was a lot of ‘used’ tools so they’d go to the property dosposal where the scrap yard would buy them by poundage – a whole dump truck full. The dump truck would come in, dump them in a pile and you’d getb to come in and for a vfee rummage through. I still have vperfectly good tools that the AF shop just didn’t want to inventory and clean, they just called ’em busted and threw ’em in barrels to be scrapped.

Because if you’re using a pre-HD monitor, it’s going to look huge, because there are only so many pixels per inch. On the other hand, if you had a 4k monitor, the pics would look really tiny. If you had a 8k monitor (a thing now, really), you’d need a jeweler’s loupe to see the picture.

If you posted a 1080p HD pic here, WordPress will downsize it so it’s not the size of a monitor, in the thread. You can click it and get the HD size in another window, which I’ve done with several of Stella’s pics for my desktop wallpaper over the years.

Hi everyone 🙂
I am so far behind in work, I was just going to sneak in and post my pic, but of course started talking to everyone!
So for Scotland week I have the famous Scottish painter Joseph Farquharson (1846 –1935) He was a Scottish painter most famous for his snowy winter landscapes, often featuring sheep & often depicting dawn or dusk. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland & died at his beloved Finzean, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He is known for outddor paintings, but I had to post his self portrait. Check out the moustache & sideburns! I will post more of his paintings this week.

A fun bit of info about how he painted outdoors:
The remarkable realism of Farquharson’s work can be attributed to his desire to work en plein air. This had to be carried out in a unique way which was adapted to the harsh Scottish climate. Farquharson had constructed a painting hut on wheels, complete with a stove & large glass window for observing the landscape. o achieve as realistic a result as possible when painting the sheep which frequently appear in his snowscapes, he used a flock of “imitation” sheep which could be placed as required in the landscape of his choice. Farquharson painted so many scenes of cattle & sheep in snow he was nicknamed ‘Frozen Mutton Farquharson’.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Farquharson

Have to run! Sorry and a big smile and wave hello to all I missed! 🙂
Have a great day!

The guy was an absolute mad genius. He probably didn’t use an X-Acto knife. Probably his teeth, in fact. This guy was in the serious wilderness. He used his own pee to stick ice chunks together — because it works. Check out his ice portals, made from ice taken from a lake which had just began to freeze. Incredible engineering, and in the wild, to boot. The only hi-tech this guy had was his camera. Everything else was MacGyver.

Urine (pee) was once a valuable commodity. In the 1700’s and earlier it was used for laundry (stale urine forms ammonia/lye). It was also used in furniture glue. In cities like London, night soil men would collect it for commercial use. Ditto poop – used for fertilizer.

The deer in this painting has only 12 points which make him a “Royal Stag”, a “Monarch Stag” should have 16. Sir Landseer also sculpted the lions at the foot of Nelson’s Column at Trafalger Square. The painting was bought by Pear’s Soap Company in 1916 and then sold to John Dewar and Sons for commercial use for Glenfiddich Scotch. It was lent to The Scottish National Gallery, and in 2017 was valued at 8 million pounds. They told the gallery if they could raise 4 million pounds, it was their’s.

I hope this comes out. I have a new ‘puter, and I’m still trying to figure out it’s intricacies!

That’s a beautiful photo of Edinburgh Castle, Stella. The place is YUGE and I’ve combed over most of it. There is a wee chapel built in the 11th century for the King’s Mother, Saint Margaret. Such a wonderful place. Her burial place is at Dunfermline, near to the tomb of King Robert the Bruce.

Our Heavenly Father, Your children come to you tonight to ask for healing and peace throughout our country so that we may return to being One Nation Under God. Guide us to be leaders in Your Kingdom, spreading Your Love and Salvation to all. Forgive us our sins and deliver us from evil.

Lord, we ask for a blanket of protection over all our troops and law enforcement who serve to defend and protect us. Bless our representatives with the strength and wisdom they need to achieve the path You have chosen for us.

Please place Your Guardian Angels of Protection around Donald Trump and Mike Pence and their families as they seek to lead America back to You.

Grant us patience, Lord, as the evil ones try to anger us and cause us to fall.
Spread blessings over Israel and Netanyahu.

We humbly ask that You please comfort those who are grieving and in pain.
Thank you Father, for Your Love and the gift of Life.

Maybe you should get a companion goat to help soothe you after a hard day on the farm………….😎….nothing like finally making it indoors after a long day and sweeping up goat pellets wiping up urine and gutted butted when you go to sit down.

I love the baby goats, but after sitting with them all day, pulling babies, and playing goat rodeo, I’ve about had enough companionship for one day. lol

Goats don’t always appreciate help even when they need it and holding a goat as strong as an ox by basically holding it’s head and half sitting on it to have the help of your legs to hold it while it’s bucking and trying to pull away uses a lot of muscles you don’t normally use. 🙂 Yes that was much of my job all day. I think my daughter got the easier of the two jobs by doing the pulling. She just got the messier end. lol

There’s a first time Mom out there that ran my head into the stall, put a bruise on my leg and then rejected her baby that is skating on some really thin ice.
She really better be glad that I just don’t like the taste of goat. lol
She better hope I get over being mad at her or this will be her last year on this farm.

I smashed my finger on the gate this morning, so I’m still not in a forgiving mood yet.

Happy to hear it:). Stay warm today, hopefully it will not be as full of a day as yesterday but I know you don’t have a choice in what the animals needs for the day will be.

I think we are talking about goats too much I had a dream I was staying in a cabin and a raccoon was peering out at me from the rafters, it came down but turned into a goat and then there were loads and loads of goats in the room 😜.

Our hope that the other doe would raise the baby that the first timer rejected didn’t work out. So that means a bottle baby. My grandson was helping and we went citified and bought some newborn diapers, cut out a hole for the tail so no poop or pee when she’s out of her cage, this has him dying laughing at a goat with a diaper.
He was laughing about her trying to find a booby on him and I told him if he laid down she’d probably jump on him. He thought that was hilarious and I told him he was doing some goat yoga. He said, “goat yoga, Nanny that sounds stupid and weird.” hahaha Nanny couldn’t agree more.

Really happy, she’s going to a new home tomorrow. I’m not fond of bottle feeding. The main reason we always leave babies on Mom is because it’s better for the baby, but a close second is because I hate bottle feeding. It’s expensive and time consuming. Every 4 hours for a month you have to feed them. Then you can start spreading out the feedings, but you have to continue until they’re at least 2 months old, sometimes longer because they don’t have a mom to teach them how to browse for food.

Farming of any sort seems like so much work. I try to be grateful for the food that “magically” appears in grocery stores but I know I don’t appreciate all the hard work that goes into getting it there enough.

That’s another reason I’m looking forward to not raising pigs, out of all the livestock they are the ones that tie you down the most.

Water and a mud hole is crucial for them and it’s almost impossible to leave them enough water to last longer than 2 days without an automatic water system and that doesn’t solve the problem of keeping water in their wallow.

Really we’ll be getting out of the red. Pig’s feed cost this year was going to be more than we could sell piglets for. Last year was the first year we didn’t make a profit and we broke even.

It’s been years since I saw the pig market as low as it is now and it doesn’t seem to have hit bottom yet. The problem is the last time it was this bad feed cost a lot less.
I don’t know how any small guys like us will be able to last unless they can find a deal like one guy I know. He has a deal with local stores and restaurants where he gets all their fruit and veggies that are going bad, old bread and expired milk. Then he gets all the restaurants scraps. His pigs live on that.

It is a well know fact Michelle that farm critters never fail to pick the nastiest, windiest, coldest or most miserable days possible to drop their young….hope you get a chance to soak those tired muscles..:0)

I read in a local newspaper the opinion of 5 different attorneys and they all said the same thing that WalMart and Dicks could choose to not sell firearms and ammunition, but if they choose to sell them then they must follow local, state and federal laws. That you can’t tell someone they can’t buy something based on age anymore than you can refuse based on color or sex.
Of course we all know the law doesn’t matter, only what black robes say, but I doubt this will be the last lawsuit.
If Dicks and WalMart are so concerned then why don’t they quit selling firearms?

Well, I am embarrassed. I said the other day that I had checked and I was getting $300 more a month in my checking account. Not so. It is only……….wait for it…………$22. It seems I subtracted correctly…………….. the wrong numbers. 🙄 I never was any good at math.

Since doing our taxes left me sitting crying the first couple of years I was married, I decided to have our taxes done by a professional and have ever since. It wasn’t that they were too complicated, they weren’t. I just couldn’t figure out what in the world the words on the tax form were telling me to do.